The present invention relates to semi-structured electronic documents, and more specifically to business process enablement of electronic documents containing unstructured content and optionally some structured content.
The virtual ubiquity of editors (e.g., word processors, spreadsheet software) for semi-structured electronic documents makes them valuable means of enabling end users to create semi-structured content. However, software needed for end users to collaboratively create the content is far from well integrated. Users may struggle with change tracking, local disk operations and email attachments to manually control content integration. Ad hoc collaboration can degenerate as outdated copies proliferate from multiple users making edits out of turn.
Server software for collaboration may allow users to set up a common repository for working on shared documents. However, these approaches provide a specific server-side system into which the office documents are integrated. In other words, end-users get locked into the system solution, which may be proprietary and offer limited interoperability.
In turn, important features needed to integrate with arbitrary business processes tend not to be available in the closed vendor-specific systems. For example, digital signatures may be more important in open systems as a means of producing legally binding agreements. As a further example, electronically drafted contracts tend to be long and involved, with many complex sections, yet current systems persist in offering a generic user interface that does little to help users navigate the complexities of the document or the business process in which it is involved.